Slovakian Billboards Double as Homeless Shelters

Billboards have often served as placards for cause marketing and conscientious messaging, so why not use them for something more tangible, like a literal roof over someone’s head?

In Slovakia, an architectural firm called Design Develop created a philanthropic arm of their work with ‘The Gregory Project.’ Its mission:

“to find optimal alternatives for existentional [sic] questions of people without a home through the use of billboard objects and their advertisment [sic] spaces.”

We appreciate their community outreach efforts even as we decry their spelling.

This three-dimensional ad would create a space — a small, wooden, two-room, triangular apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom.

“The ad space would help offset the cost of construction, and the houses would already be wired for electricity because of the lights that illuminate the boards at night. It’s a great idea to optimize existing structures, especially when you consider the additions wouldn’t infringe on the billboard.”

Look below: those “billboards” are nicer than many flats in American cities. The architects told Designboom, “If we take the electricity cost needed for the billboard to keep it lit during night and we try to optimize it by X percent, we find that this saved energy could fully cover all those interior usage needs.”